Charles babcogk



(No Model.)

SHOE LAGE PASTENBR.

` No. 460.816. Patented 001;. 6, 1891. 1

f g T ng'f WITNEEEEE IPR/ENTER UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES BABOOOK, OF TROY, NEIV YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO ALLEN R. THOMPSON, OF SAME PLACE.

SHOE-LACE FASTENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 460,816, dated October 6, 1891.

Application led December 9, 1890. Serial No. 374.034. (No model.) v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES BABoocK, of the city of Troy, county of Rensselaer, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shoe-Strin g Fasteners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a clasp for securing the ends of shoe strings or lacings, which clasp 1s adapted to be attached to the tops of the shoe-uppers at each side of the buttoningslit made therein, through which the foot is entered, the object and purpose of my invention being to produce a device wherein and whereby the ends of the shoe strings or laclngs are secured after being laced, so as to avoid the necessity of produciugknots in the string or lacings when the shoe is put on and the untying of knots when the shoe is being removed.

Accompanying this specification, to form a part of it, there is a sheetV of drawings containing nine figures, illustrating my invention, with the same designation of part by letter-reference used in all of them.

Of these illustrations, Figure lis a perspective of a shoe with myimproved string or lace fasteners applied thereto, with the shoe shown as partly laced up. Fig. 2 is a perspective of a shoe to which my invention is applied, with the front slit laced up and with the ends of the strings secured by my improved clamp. Fig. 3 is a top view of one of my shoe-string fasteners with apartof the shoe-upper shown, to which the fastener is attached. Fig. I is a section taken on the line os of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 shows the same parts that are shown at Fig. 4, with the end of the string secured by the clamp. Fig. (i shows a modification, in which the clamping part of the device is made of wire instead of sheet metal, and in which a part of the shoe-upper, to which the clamp attaches, is shown. Fig. 7 is a section taken through the clamp shown at Fig. G on the line r2 m2. Fig. 8 shows the same parts that are shown at Figs. 6 and 7, with a shoe-string end secured therein. Fig. 9 shows the blank form of the sheet metal, from which the clamp shown at Figs. l, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is produced.

The several parts of the mechanism thus illustrated are designated by letter-reference,

and the function of the parts is described as follows.

The letters S designate the shoe made with the button-slit S2, through which the foot is entered to put on the shoe.

The letters E designate eyelets arranged iu the upper on each side of the button-slit at the lower end of the latter, aud'the letters B designate buttons arranged at each side of the slit S2 above the eyelets E.

The letter L designates the shoe string or lacing, and e3 c3 its ends.

The letter O designates my improved shoe string fastener or clamp, which consists of Y two C-form prongs P, that are outwardly projected from the body part so as to produce an intermediate slit I, and the letter e2 designates an eyelet formed in the body D of the fastener, by which the latter is attached to the shoe-upper. Preferably these prongs are 7o made from sheet metal stamped out in a blank form, as shown at Fig. 9, and are rounded upwardly, so as to be exteriorly concave, with the eyelet E2 stamped down through the ilat body part to produce 'the eyelet-shank and 75 with the arms d a of the blank turned up, over, and down, so as to produce the prongs P and leave the intermediate slit I and the lateral passages p2 for the string L.

In the modification shown at Figs. 6, 7, 8o and S the prongs P are formed from wire and made to loop around the eyelet-E2, so as to be heldin place when the eyelet is headed by the flange f, encircling the top of the eyelet, as shown at Fig. 7.

IVhen attached to a shoe, as shown at Figs. l and 2, after the lacing has been accomplished up along the buttoning-slit, the shoe* string is passed down through the slit I, then passed around the rounded face of the prongs 9o and then brought down again through the slit I, in which position the string ends are securely held. VVhen'it is desired to remove the shoe and to unlace the same, the string is merely drawn out of the top ofthe slit I and 95 from around the rounded upward projection ofthe prongs, and then again from out of the slit I when in the bottom of the latter.

lVhile I have shown my improved clamp as applied to secure the ends ot' shoe strings or roo leces,it1nay be used forcorset-lecings, gioves, width only to allow the string to be forced and Other like uses where it is desired to sebetween them and thus secured after being cure the ends of strings in @like ina-nner. passed under said prongs, substantially as Having thus described my invention, what specified. 15 5 I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat- Signed at Troy, New York, this 2d day of ent, is.- December, 1890, and in the presence of the A shoe-string fastener consisting of t boly two Witnesses Whose naines are hereto Written. portion D, formed With :nu eyeiet, and two CHARLES BABCOCK. spring-prongs P P, bent upward and then Vitnesses: Io laterally over the body portion and having :t YV. E. HAGAN,

clamping-space I betweenv them of sufiicient K CHARLES S. BRINTNALL. 

